Sous Wha?
Sous-Vide is a cooking method that utilizes vacuum sealed bags to cook food in a temperature controlled water bath. It is particularly useful for cooking meat at low temperatures safely provided you cook it for long enough. This is great for Carnivore as eating meat as close to raw, and eating fat un-rendered, is highly desirable.
It used to be a super-expensive method of cooking food, due to the equipment involved, but several years ago a few small groups set out to crowd-fund various home-use Sous-Vide circulators, making Sous-Vide affordable to the masses. This is my attempt to distill my lessens learned over the past year or so into a single article.
Equipment
Sous-Vide
I will confine myself to commenting on models I have used. There are lots out there, and if you want to you can read great comparison reviews. Almost all of them will have the following models on their lists, but I have actually owned these:Anova Nano
My first Sous-Vide was the Anova Nano. It's a bluetooth only stick rated at 750 watts with a plastic body. I bought it for about $125, but it's now about $100 and you can sometimes get it for less. The best part about any Anova Sous-Vide is that they have manual controls on the top that you can use to set the temp and time with your actual fingers. Of course there's an app too, which you can use to connect in this case via bluetooth to do the same. But sometimes you just don't want to use the app, so it's nice to have the options right there. This is a fine intro Sous-Vide, though it can take a while to heat up the water at it's lower wattage, it keeps it at the temp, which is really the most important thing. Of course, if you want to be able to remotely turn it on or off, you are out of luck as there is no WiFi or cloud support for this model. I would also warn that it doesn't sit as low in containers as other models, so you have to put more water in to get it above the minimum line, forcing you to heat more water than you might want. Also, the screw clamp can sometimes crack plastic containers, especially if you hit the device at the wrong angle. I've had to throw away one plastic container already as a result. I still have this guy, he lives at work!
Anova Wifi + Bluetooth 900 W
My second Sous-Vide was the upgrade to the Nano, the Wifi edition with 900 watts of power. It's $200 now (discontinued model) but I picked it up for $172 on sale. The main reason I got it was because Anova advertised that it was possible to schedule the device to come on at a certain time, which would be ideal for ensuring the water was at the proper temperature in the morning when I wake up to pop some meat in so it would be done by the time I had to leave and go to work. Unfortunately, this was false advertising, and even though their technical support said the feature was "on the way" it never materialized (to this day I believe). That being said, it was a decent Sous-Vide in every other respect, having the manual controls like it's little brother, but adding the ability to turn it on/off from anywhere with Internet access. This was useful for getting the water hot while at work, ready to pop in some meat for dinner when I got home. However...the day came when I had to reset my phone due to an update that wouldn't fit on my phone’s drive. After doing so, I had to reset the wifi on my Anova as well. This turned into a multi-day-week process of failure, calling tech support, trying multiple things, until I finally gave up and bought something else. Remember, I work in IT, so I'm used to all the technical nonsense, but this was ridiculous. First of all, it only works on 2.4ghz networks, and is so finicky, those network SSIDs must use simple characters, and *SO MUST YOUR PASSWORD*! That is bonkers. It's also incredibly sensitive to changes in signal strength, etc... All this to say...nope...done. I bought my replacement and sold this one to a friend who said he had no issues getting it hooked up to his wifi. Good for him, but I'm never buying another Anova if I can help it. I will say it sat a bit lower in containers than the Nano, and the extra power definitely made a difference in heat times.
Joule
The Joule is $250 list price, but I got it at $205. It's a little guy, but packs a whopping 1100 watts of power. The biggest turn off I'd had previously was that there are almost zero manual controls. That's not quite true though...you can press down for a while on the top and it will turn off. Otherwise, you must use the accompanying app to turn it on and off. This would be a royal pain, except that they also have Echo/Alexa support via a skill, so you can say "Alexa, ask Joule to set the temperature to 131 degrees" and it'll just turn on. You can also ask for a status update or for it to stop. The primary feature I bought it for was the ability to turn it on and off from anywhere (see my review for the Anova Wifi above). As long as it did that and worked, that's all I really wanted. But I have been pleasantly surprised by it and it has become my favorite Sous-Vide I've owned thus far. Sadly, it doesn't support scheduled start times, though I don't see why it couldn't. Someone has created a Chrome add-on that let's you turn it on/off from you web browser when connected to the same network. What is really needed is for someone to make an IFTTT plugin, or to enable full "smart thing" Alexa support and then we'd be off to the races! Anyway, I'm not that kind of IT guy, so I just make do. Other perks I didn't realize at first: it has a magnetic bottom, so you can stick it in a metal (not aluminum) pot and it will just stand there! It has the lowest water level requirement of any sous-vide, so you can cook in very, very low levels of water if you want to. It's uses a unique bottom draw, top exit water flow system that seems to work very efficiently, though I'm sure the 1100 watts doesn't hurt either. It was able to heat up the same amount of water significantly faster than either of my previous Anovas. Also, it uses a clip with a gentle rubber pad to stay upright in a container, so no damage. I love this guy, and my only fear is that someday the people who maintain the app will stop supporting it and make it obsolete. Hopefully this Chrome add-on will keep working!
Containers
Next on the list are containers. You need to put your water and meat into something, preferably big enough to circulate well.Rubbermaid 12qt
I bought two of these early on and still have one. The other cracked due to the Anova Nano's tightening mechanism and I had to toss it. This is a good size, though a little big if you are just cooking for yourself every day. You can put several steaks or a large piece of meat in easily. It can get a bit crowded if you're cooking a large piece of meat over several days and then want to pop something small in. The biggest drawback to this container is it has no insulation. You can buy wrappers to insulate it better, but that's yet one more thing. Of course, there are also lids you can buy to prevent evaporation, and I bought one. Turns out I rarely use it because I often clip to the side of the container rendering the lid pretty useless. Another handy accessory to grab is a set of steel dividers if you cook a lot of steaks. I also found other uses for these as weights to keep food from rising. More on that later.
Lipavi 20qt and lid
As I hungered for more volume to cook larger hunks of meat, I obtained this container which is made more specifically for Sous-Vide, and the price was a bit higher. I only rarely use it these days but it is nice to have the ability to cook a very large hunk or a great many smaller steaks. Once I was in charge of sous-viding the steaks for a medium sized BBQ, so I did them all ahead of time, then ice-bathed them to bring them over for the finishing touches on the grill. Worked perfectly.
Coleman 5qt Cooler
In the opposite directly, since I'd been regularly cooking a single pound of ground beef in my larger 12qt container, I began to think it might be better to get a smaller, insulated container to save power and speed up heat times. These little 5qt guys are definitely tight, and I don't know that I could use them if I didn't have a Joule sous-vide, but they work great for just one pound of meat. Heat up in about 10-15 minutes too, so I don't have to remind myself to turn it on before the end of work, I just do it as I start walking home. This is my main setup at the moment. Cool thing is the lid is completely removable, so you don't need to bother with it. I actually bought two of these and had a friend drill a U cut in the middle for my Joule to fit, but haven't ended up using it because of the lack of space inside to ensure the bag stays submerged. I find the evaporation is quite slow and easy to keep up with. Having a second small cooler for ice baths is a nice thing too.
Coleman 16qt Cooler
Loving the insulation approach, I decided to replace my 12qt plastic container with this 16 qt cooler. I did a longer cook the other day with some larger cuts and decided to try it out. Works great! The lid is hinged, though I could rip it of if I wanted to. But I might want to use it as a proper cooler at times, so I will leave it on. The evaporation is more significant, so I may look for a solution to that at some point. I hear ping pong balls floating on the top work well...
Vacuum sealers and bags
FoodSaver FM2000First, I need to emphasize that it is not necessary to have a vacuum sealer in order to do Sous-Vide cooking. Personally I use mine far less than I thought I would, instead preferring ZipLoc bags for many applications. However, there are scenarios in which it is very nice to have a vacuum sealer, particularly for steaks I would say. And larger cuts of meat. I picked up this relatively cheap vacuum sealer along with the starter bags that come with it. Since then I’ve ordered more bags, but haven’t gone through the second batch nearly as quickly. There are two types of bags, pre-sealed except for one end, and rolls, which have 2 sides sealed, allowing you to cut them to fit the size you wish. Personally I find the pre-sealed type to be less useful. With the rolls, howerver, I have found it best to double seal at every opportunity, and be careful of putting anything bony in there! You don’t want to have a burst bag during your cook, it’s messy and then you have to clean everything. Also, if you get the cheaper sealers, they don’t handle moist or wet conditions well, sucking all that moisture right up to the top and spoiling your chances of getting a seal. Then you have to clean it all up, get a new bag, toss the old one, etc... It’s a pain. So I’ve learned a couple of things to help with that: 1) you don’t have to wait for the full vacuum before sealing...just press the seal button whenever you think it’s ready and it will stop the vacuum. If the meat is just a little moist, this works best. 2) Bag frozen when you can. There are some downsides here too, as the hard edges can sometimes puncture the bag (in which case, double bag), or getting the spices to adhere to the meat evenly (spread a light layer of olive oil over the meat before applying spices), but you can get a much better seal if the meat is already frozen, and it doesn’t take long to thaw meat in the Sous-Vide, especially for long cooks.
Ziploc Freezer Bags, quart and gallon
Ziploc bags are awesome! Cheap and easy to use, I use more quart bags than anything else. With Ziplocs, you use the water-displacement method when putting the bag in the water, letting the water squeeze out all the air before sealing the bag. Then clip it to the side and hang a weight off the clip onto the meat to keep it under if there are some bubbles (those metal spacers I mentioned above are perfect for this). A tip for putting meat into the bags (applies to the vacuum sealed variety as well) is to fold the top of the bag over on itself just a little bit so when you put the meat in the juices don’t get all over the lock mechanism. When I go for my big ground meat runs, I get up to 20 1 lbs hunks of meat and process them all at once, spicing them, bagging them, and then freezing immediately. From frozen, I’ll cook them about 3-4 hours (4 preferrably), or thawed about 2 hours. Sear it up in the cast iron pan and they are ready to go. This is my main staple food on Carnivore. The gallon size are useful to, especially for larger wet cooks, like marinated chicken. I’ve also used them as a double bag option when I have a suspect vacuum sealed bag, but this can lead to air pockets and floating problems, so I don’t do it too often.
Searing equipment
Cast Iron PanCheap, easy, highly recommended. However, grease splatter is a real problem. I haven’t solved this yet, but we have to do a deep clean every week or so to keep up with it. One suggestion is to not put any butter or grease in the pan when searing...it’s not the best sear, but it reduces splatter. Eventually the fat will render out anyway and you’ll be back to splatter.
Iwatani Torch
In a pinch, usually at work, I’ll use an Iwatani butane torch to sear my meat. Of course, you should always dry as much moisture off of your meat with paper towels before any kind of searing. The torch method is...just ok. It doesn’t give the same great flavor as a cast iron pan, that’s for sure.
BBQ
Sadly, I can’t have an open flame BBQ on my porch, and I don’t want to bother with a gas grill. But I’ve had steaks seared on a BBQ or smoker, and wow...really good stuff!
Others
There are lots of other pretty awesome searing options out there for those who can afford it or are allowed to use them. A google search will show several.
Miscellaneous
Pressure CookerWe have an Instant Pot 6qt and 8qt. I know, a bit overkill, but sometimes you just need to cook meat in different ways! I use ours primarily to cook beef tongue, because I tried to sous-vide it and I don’t recommend it. Also, we make bone broth, soup stock, or caramelized onion base for various things when we get the fancy.
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